Uptown Notes

You’ve never given this much to the Lord or to the LA legislature!

I thoroughly enjoyed New Muslim Cool for its careful treatment of Hamza who beautifully embodies two of the most powerful social forces of the past 30 years: Hip-Hop and Islam. As a child of Hip-Hop and an admirer of Islam, I was pleased to see that the “new muslim cool” may just be the maturation of the old muslim cool.

We remain in a moment where people are beginning to realize that the election of Barack Obama does not mean a Black political agenda, one in which race is central, will continue to be pushed into the public sphere. So the question becomes, who advances the concerns of the faces at the bottom of the well?

This week, I’ve got a nice set of deep and thorough posts on some things you may have seen recently, [...]

The recent death of Chris Jones, attributed to a gang in suburbia has sparked more hysteria about the violence, gangs, and most importantly race without mentioning race.

I like to laugh … particularly at people trying to break coconuts.

A brief round-up of the best pieces on Sotomayor’s nomination by Barack Obama for the Supreme Court.